President Donald Trump has long been all for bullying and demeaning the media and individual reporters, but since taking office it has become an administration-wide affair.
In its latest attack on the press, the White House created a Media Bias Tracker late last week to single out stories they deem to be false and writers part of a “left-wing lunacy.”
But this doesn’t appear to be a case of fact-checking everything for the sake of a free and unbiased media—which, in itself, already raises red flags coming from the U.S. government. Instead, the lists of publications and names single out articles and opinion pieces that paint the president in any negative light.
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This even includes a segment on “The View.” After Whoopi Goldberg and her colleagues caught media attention for an impromptu song dissing Trump’s ballroom, the White House decided to label the opinion talk show as “left-wing lunacy.”
The team behind this work also singled out reporters in their “Hall of Shame,” including Daily Kos contributor Max Burns for an op-ed published in The Hill. In August, Burns wrote about the president’s authoritarian-flavored use of deploying the National Guard and taking control of police in Washington.
“The White House called my column about Donald Trump’s increasing authoritarianism a ‘lie’ despite the page itself failing to dispute a single word of what I wrote in the piece,” Burns told Daily Kos in a written statement.
The White House’s searchable portal labels Burns’ piece as “misrepresentation” and “lies,” citing only that The Hill used a photo of the National Guard from 2021, rather than a more current snap.
Burns said, “It’s also ironic to me that Trump responded to my piece calling me an authoritarian by adding my name to an authoritarian list designed to intimidate journalists—something you only see in authoritarian governments.”
More right-leaning outlets, like Fox News and the New York Post notably are not included. For a brief moment, Fox News was listed on the website before being removed. According to the Washington Post, a reporter was mistakenly identified as being a Fox News reporter when that was not the case.
In listing people the president doesn’t agree with, the White House has, essentially, made a searchable database of targets. But Trump himself has been doing this for quite some time. The man who, lest we not forget, bragged about grabbing women’s genitals, has singled out female reporters by calling them “ugly” or even “piggy” when asked questions he doesn’t like.
Hegseth is always willing to do Trump’s bidding.
But it’s not just verbal attacks, Trump has sought to silence the media through numerous lawsuits—some successful while others were not—while calling for comedians he disagreed with, like Jimmy Kimmel, to be taken off the air as well.
On the other hand, those willing to blindly support the president and his Cabinet’s demands for loyalty have been boosted onto a pedestal. After the mainstream media walked away from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new censor-heavy press policy, far-right influencers and outlets loyal to the president’s cause were instead welcomed.
People and outlets such as the Gateway Pundit, the Post Millennial, Human Events, and the National Pulse agreed not to publish any information that was not already cleared by the Pentagon itself. Laura Loomer, Trump’s attack dog, is also on the press team.
Journalists and media outlets are being shut out and targeted at record speeds. But more of a concern, those willing to censor themselves for the sake of access are favored while others have targets placed on their backs.
Daily Kos contacted the White House press team with a detailed list of questions, but they did not respond by time of publication.
